Poorest London councils pay executives twice as much as Prime Minister

Some of London's poorest boroughs are paying their chief executives nearly double the salary of the Prime Minister, it was revealed today.

A Standard investigation into the pay of London's 32 town hall bosses reveals how four councils struggling to cope with their share of more than £4 billion of services cuts still paid out more than £1 million to only four men.

Today Newham, Lambeth, Waltham Forest and Islington were all criticised for their "excessive" payments last year when the four boroughs had among the highest rates of unemployed and benefits claimants in the capital. Joe Duckworth, chief executive of Newham at the time the figures were collated to April 2010, earned £281,085. He has since resigned and was replaced by Kim Bromley-Derry, earning £195,000 after the salary was "reassessed".

Derrick Anderson, of Lambeth, earned £269,836. The borough said the sum was due to a "one-off payment" to top up his basic salary of £213,630. A Lambeth spokesman said: "The salaries of senior staff in Lambeth have been frozen since 2008-9."

Andrew Kilburn, of Waltham Forest, who left last summer, was on more than £257,000, while John Foster, of Islington, was paid, including pension, nearly £223,000. By comparison, David Cameron draws a salary of £142,500 as Prime Minister.

Local government expert Tony Travers said salaries of London's town hall bosses had "drifted upwards" under Labour. Mr Travers, director of LSE London at the London School of Economics, said: "The last government had an obsessive interest in targets. That meant councils became very concerned about getting top ratings. Headhunters were telling them they had to pay for the best."

The salary of Gerald Jones, the former chief executive of wealthier Wandsworth, caused outrage when it was revealed he earned £355,000, including his pension - the highest in the country. Mr Jones has since retired, replaced by Paul Martin on £180,000.

Wandsworth said the payment for Mr Jones was due to his 25-year service. The investigation revealed that some directors and even teachers earned more than £250,000.

Mark Elms, head teacher of Tidemill School in Deptford, earned nearly £250,000 including pension. Lewisham said the salary paid to Mr Elms last year was £82,714, plus payments from the government "extra responsibilities".

The highest-earning town hall official other than a chief executive is Haringey's Peter Lewis, its director of children and young people's services, whose total annual remuneration was more than £280,000.

Darren Johnson, a Green Party member of the London Assembly, said: "It's shocking that chief executives are paid so much in some of our most deprived communities." Many of the councils in the top 20 reduced salaries for incoming chief executives after last April.